


Catch Up

by A_Cautionary_Tale



Series: Need More Zsasz? [1]
Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Character Study, College, Prequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2019-02-26
Packaged: 2019-09-27 16:57:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 21,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17165771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Cautionary_Tale/pseuds/A_Cautionary_Tale
Summary: Ed tells Oswald the story of how he first met Victor Zsasz.





	1. Last Chance Roommates

I can't quite describe what going to college meant for me. It wasn't just the validation I'd been seeking all of my life, though the multiple scholarships I earned certainly did help with that, nor was it the mere excitement of the sheer amount of new knowledge that was about to be lain at my fingertips, though I will admit that thought alone was enough to set me shaking. No. As always, there was something much darker at play. You see going to college, getting accepted with a full ride scholarship, it meant for the first time in my life I was free. 

I had hope. 

Honestly by then, I should have known better. 

Academically, school came easily to me. I blazed through my classes like a lit fuse, eagerly pursuing their climatic yet predictable end. 

I got all A's. I never faltered or misstepped. 

Socially, well, I struggled. 

**_I come to those who want, but cannot have. Those who have me, look to others. Those who see me, never want me._ **

I had long since learned to ignore others within the confines of the classroom and even the hallways. At least as much as I could, but while I exalted in the new-found freedom of being rid of my prior living conditions, I found myself totally unprepared to move into such close quarters with a complete stranger. Despite my initial misgivings I tried to remain optimistic. 

My first roommate's name was Reggie. I really did try with him. After all this was the beginning of my new life. Why shouldn't I have friends? He seemed nice enough at first, a chemistry major, like myself, I thought we would connect on that. I was, of course, smarter than him. He asked me for assistance with his homework and his projects and I gave it willingly. He started skipping classes towards the end of my first semester. He was far more focused on his side projects than his school work and started expecting me to just, take care of it. It was frustrating, but I didn't turn him in to the student housing authority, until I caught him stealing from me. They found the drugs easily enough after that. 

The next one was Simon, a wannabe doctor. Too good-looking and smooth to be trusted. Suffice to say I was already defensive after Reggie. The nice thing about Simon, he was out almost all day, every day. The terrible thing about Simon was that he almost always came back to the room at some unseemly hour, piss-faced drunk and more often than not accompanied by at least one woman. I'm quite certain now that he got off on making me uncomfortable. The more hellish he made life for me the happier he seemed, and to make matters worse we had several classes together. 

I put up with it as long as I could. I didn't want to give in, to give him the satisfaction of driving me out. I honestly, probably, would have just grinned and barred it if he didn't keep me up all night before my exams. I noticed my grades slipping. I got an A- it's hard admitting to that, but it's true. 

I reported him to the student housing authority. I was concise when I made my claim, but their response was not as accepting as it had been with Reggie. They treated me as if I was the instigator, they even went as far as to forcing me into a counseling session with him to ‘work out our differences’. That's when I knew he hated me. He played it all off as though he was totally unaware of his actions, as if I was overreacting. 

No. I could not let this stand I had not escaped one hellhole to so easily fall into another. I pressed my case. I realize now that it only served to worsen my standing with student housing. When they finally agreed to relocate me, they made it very clear that if I should take up issue with my new roommate, they would simply revoke the room and board privileges that my scholarship provided. 

The threat of being sent home left me speechless. 

I packed my things in silence. I made no comment on how odd it was that the day of my departure was the first time I found Simon in the room during daylight. I didn't say goodbye. 

My new room was in a completely different building from my former one. The students that passed me in the halls were more of Simon's ilk. Loud, talkative, abrasive. Business students. I braced myself for the worst when I slid my key into the door. 

I was not disappointed. 

I found my new roommate sitting on, what would end up being, my desk. His smile was all teeth and his eyes were dark and accessing. 

"Hey!" 

He slunk off the table immediately invading my personal space and claiming my hand in his steadfast grip. 

"I'm Victor Zsasz, you must be Ed, I've been waiting for you." 

I forced a smile and waited for him to release my hand. He eventually did, but only to make matters worse. 

"Lemme help you get your stuff." 

He snatched up my suitcase, in a way that made me think former, if not current, jock. 

You have to understand I was still reeling from the threat of being sent home and still seething from my last few minutes spent with Simon. So, it was actually with a great amount of restraint when all I said was: 

"Please don't touch that." 

Victor turned back to me wide-eyed, dropping my suitcase as though it had physically scalded him. 

Perhaps I should mention that I practically screamed that last part at him. I immediately regretted it though, as I watched the previously buoyant individual quietly cross over to his side of the room and proceed to fold himself up on his bed where he sat and stared. Waiting. 

**_Blood that flows yet fails to bleed. When falsely applied I'm considered an asset. When truthfully shown I betray my bearer._ **

I turned my back on him and set to unpacking without another word. Internally I condemned my stupidity for starting off on the wrong foot. Even with my accelerated course program it was likely that if I wanted to survive to adulthood, I was going to have to spend at least a year in tight quarters with the man I'd just snapped at and if anything, he was both physically and socially more adept than I was. 

But not smarter, I consoled myself. They were never smarter. 

I began to consider where I could acquire an appropriate amount of drugs to hide amongst his belongings. I wondered if Reggie would provide me with such information. 

When I was more or less finished unpacking, and considerably calmer now that I had a plan formulating for if the situation grew untenable, I turned around to face him and nearly fell over. 

Victor had moved. Silently. From his position braced back up against the wall to directly behind me, leaning forward so that when I turned, we'd been directly face to face. 

"Can we talk now?" He asked as I caught my breath. 

"What exactly do you feel we need to talk about?" I asked trying to keep it from coming out harsh and failing miserably. 

"Rules," Victor said unabashed. 

"Rules?" I repeated. 

With one word he'd honestly spiked my interest. 

"Yeah, y'know, sort of like a social contract so neither you nor I get kicked out of student housing." 

I blinked. "Why would you get kicked out of student housing, Victor Zsasz?" 

"They didn't tell you?" Victor's brow knit. 

I shook my head, hoping the slow controlled movement would help quell the building anxiety in my chest. 

"You're my last shot Ed, if I fuck up with you, they're kicking me out. I'll have to get an apartment on my own and I don't want to do that." 

I straightened. This at least helped explain Victor's initial retreat when I lashed out at him. 

"What, pray tell, did you do to get on student housing's bad side?" 

He frowned and for a moment I thought he would retreat again, but then he leaned further forwards so our faces were only inches apart. I was swiftly discovering that Victor Zsasz had no deference for personal space. 

"Okay so the first two weren't my fault and really they involved frat houses so I don't even see why the student housing authority had to get involved, but whatever." He shrugged, "the third one though that was totally my bad, so I get that." 

"May I ask what happened?" 

I fought the urge to recoil as Victor pinned me with the full force of his dark stare. 

"My first frat house caught fire and everyone blamed me, but really it was a group effort." 

I nodded. I'd seen the building's remains and repairs were still being made to the surrounding structures. 

"The second frat that took me had this rule about taking shots when you answered study group questions right. I don't remember exactly what happened, but three of the upper classmen and I got in a fight and I threw one of them over the banister on the stairs." His face clouded for a moment. "It was three against one though and those wusses should have just backed off when I punched out the first guy." 

I nodded again starting to rethink my plan on sabotaging the man in front of me as he clinched his fists. 

"The last one." He sighed. "Had personal space issues. He didn't like me touching his stuff and then one day I came in and he'd split the room with duct tape." Victor spat out the last two words like they left a bitter taste. "I tried to roll with it, but he was a total slob, like he'd leave out rotting food and shit, and then one day he tossed a banana peel on my side of the room and so I got up, grabbed the banana peel and knocked his teeth in with it." 

Victor looked back up at me and all the venom drained from his features and voice. "So, what'd you do Ed?" 

I leaned back determined to give him only a terse understanding of my prior difficulties. I felt it was tantamount not to give this man any sense of what stressed me and yet as I spoke, and he watched me with those dark piercing eyes, I found myself speaking true. Unnecessarily true, all the pain and anxiety, Reginald's betrayal had left me, all the suffering and discomfort that now fueled my hatred of Simon was lain bare before Victor. 

For his part Victor Zsasz remained silent, not a muscle moved on his face. The man must be amazing at card games. 

When I was well and truly finished and had to stop talking if only to reign in the raw ball of emotion that was spilling from my guts through my lips, Victor spoke. 

"I will never steal from you Ed." His voice was solemn and even. A promise and in that instance, I believed he truly meant it. "And I never lie." 

A hiccup of laughter escaped my lips before I could suppress it. 

"Everyone lies." I said in way of explanation. 

"I don't." There was no conviction to his words. It was a statement pure and simple. 

I didn't believe him. I simply couldn't, but unwilling to argue, I let it slide. 

"The rules?" I asked to change the subject. 

"You start, set a curfew so I don't wake you." 

For some reason his words caught me completely off-guard, despite the fact a good portion of my previous tirade had been dedicated to the fact Simon seemed to enjoy interrupting my sleep. I searched the man's eyes looking for the trap. Somehow, I expected Victor to use this against me. His face betrayed nothing of any ulterior motives, so eventually I submitted to his game. 

"Ten. Every night. I prefer to keep to a regular routine even when I don't have morning classes." 

Victor nodded. "Alright then if either of us are out past ten we find somewhere else to sleep." He watched me intently for confirmation. 

I nodded, as I always returned to the room immediately after class, I knew this wouldn't be an issue for me. 

"I'm thinking," Victor continued, "Maybe we should make it a rule that the room is just for you and me. No guests. Unless you don't like that." He amended with a shrug at the end. 

Again, I searched him, but all I could make out in his wide dark eyes was perhaps a hint of curiosity. 

"Yes," I agreed, relaxing more. "It sounds like you appreciate a clean space as much as I do. May we agree to promptly taking out the trash once it's full and removing any unnecessary clutter?" 

He smiled. It was the first time he'd done so since my initial outburst. "Yeah, can we also agree that either of us can throw out leftovers from the fridge after three days whether we wanted to eat it or not?" 

"Yes." Growing in confidence I continued on in rapid succession. "And no wet towels on the bathroom floor, and laundry must be done at least once a week." 

Victor nodded. "I can actually do yours too if you want. I like doing laundry." 

I paused watching Victor's manic grin pool into his eyes. There was a sharpness there and whether the man consciously intended it or not, I knew this was a test. He had slid to absolute edge of his bed, leaning so far forward that if I hadn't leaned back when we'd started this conversation, he would have been touching me. 

Victor's last roommate had 'personal space' issues... 

I swiftly thought over how important to me my current wardrobe was. It was functional, mostly sweaters, button-down shirts and slacks. Nothing special or particularly embarrassing. I reassessed Victor's attire. He was wearing a shirt, slacks and a tie. A business student, if anything the primary difference in our wardrobe was his shoes, that were high-gloss black and clearly expensive. 

"How about we keep a communal hamper by the bathroom and whichever of us has time can take the lot?" A counter proposition, to see if he was as willing to let me touch his as he was to touch mine. 

He straightened up a little, and I feared he might fall off his bed entirely. 

"Great idea Ed!" He beamed. "So, like with touching each other's stuff, not that I feel like we should go out of our way to touch each other's stuff, but like that's fine, right? Like if I need to borrow a pen, you're not going to bite my head off, will you?" 

Ah. So, there it was. My mind immediately bridled with thoughts of Reginald holding my wallet, how I'd broached the thought of finding my cash short before and he'd lied to my face. 

I looked back up at Victor, his face had gone slack and emotionless once more; waiting. I thought about his first words after my confessions. 

I will never steal from you Ed, and I never lie. 

I was going to have to live with this man for at least a year and in truth I had nothing to hide. 

I sighed deeply. "I guess if I can touch your stuff you can touch my stuff, but only as necessary." 

This time he did slide off the bed, rising to his feet and extending his hand. 

"And no duct tape," he added cheekily. 

"No, duct tape," I confirmed rising to my feet and matching his smile. This time I shook his hand.


	2. First Week

The first week was still a bit of an adjustment. My laundry materialized on my bed one day crisp and meticulously folded. Being of different majors our schedules didn't have any crossover so I really only saw him in the evenings. 

I often returned to find him sprawled out across his bed eating. The second I set up my desk though he'd be on it leaning over me to examine my paperwork, chewing. Though he lacked even the basest understanding of chemistry he seemed indefinitely interested in whatever I was doing and questioned me constantly. 

The first few days I clamped down and put up with it. By the end of the week though I could feel the anxiety of his constant proximity coiling around me with such force it seemed tangible. It finally became enough that I stopped, looked him in the eye and explained to him, in no uncertain terms, that I needed to study without him on my desk. 

He went out after that and I didn't see him for the next three days. 

I did our laundry and came to the conclusion that the business student had significantly more money than anyone I'd met before. Everything he owned was expensive and custom tailored. If nothing more it put me at ease that he indeed would have no cause to steal from me. 

Everything on his side of the room was always kept neat. To the point that I found myself actively conscious of keeping my own in order to match his standard. It all meant that I had no idea if he'd come back at all in the three days since I'd seen him last. I laid his clothing out across his bed as he'd done with mine. It was an odd ritual, like I was trying to summon him back to me. 

When ten o'clock rolled around he was still absent. 

**_I can fill a room or just one heart. Others can have me, but I cannot be shared._ **

I awoke the next morning to someone shaking me. 

"You broke your alarm clock." Victor stated as I recoiled from his touch. 

I blinked, bleary-eyed as I reached for my glasses. He handed them to me. Sure enough, my alarm clock lay silent on top of Victor's bed, there was a sizable divot in the wall above it. 

"I can fix that." I responded automatically, before looking up to see the look of confusion on my roommate's face. 

"Ed you need to get to class it's ten thirty." He stated. 

I shot out of bed, grabbing the first set of clothes I laid hands on. I stripped right in front of him. I was far past caring after already having missed half of my first class. I was in the hallway before a stray thought halted my flight. 

"Victor." I turned back holding open the door. 

He just stood there staring at me, wearing rumpled clothes from the night prior. 

"Come back tonight." I commanded before closing the door and bolting forward full tilt to class. 

I hadn't been late to class since elementary school; after I realized I could walk there myself if I woke up at three thirty. 

The door was, thankfully, not locked. I slipped in and took a seat in the back row. I had already pulled out my notebook and started writing before I realized Simon was seated next to me. 

Once I caught sight of that arrogant grin though, I couldn't shake the feeling of being caught for the rest of the day. As Simon had opted to go into pharmaceuticals, we still had several classes together, but that day, more so than any day previous, I felt he was following me. 

I confirmed it when I stopped for lunch between classes and he approached me. 

"Long time no see Edward, still having trouble sleeping or are you just getting lazy?" Simon teased. 

I blatantly ignored him. An old tactic that served with mixed results at best, but I just didn't have the energy to deal with his antics. 

"Has your new roommate realized what a creep you are yet?" Simon persisted, leaning closer in. "I know you were always watching me, listening. Freaks like you always want what they can't have." 

I stood abruptly, using my height as my only advantage over him. It caused him to step back, but did little else to dissuade him. 

"Victor and I get along fine, unlike some people, he knows how to respect boundaries." I ground out throwing as much venom into my voice as I could muster. 

Simon backed away with a smile. "Victor, huh? See you in class Edward." 

* * *

When I returned to the room Victor was gone again. He'd patched the drywall over his bed and returned the broken clock to its rightful place on my side of the room. 

I don't know what I was expecting. For him to be waiting for me as he had done the first day. I shoved the thought aside and set to studying. 

My homework took me longer than normal. Part of it was me facing the fact that I'd driven off Victor. I'd been the aggressor who'd made him feel unwelcome and as the person who's been on the receiving end of such a plight more times than I care to keep track of, I knew how bad it felt. 

Even worse though is that my behavior toward Victor was the smaller part of what had me down. Far more than I felt for Victor, I hated the fact that Simon had been right about Victor and I not getting along. I hated the thought that I had done anything to validate that poor excuse for a human being. 

After I finished my homework, I retrieved my alarm clock and pried the backing off of it. This wasn’t the first time I'd managed to break the cheap old mechanism. Usually a few of the gears just popped loose. Unfortunately, this time the major coil had sprung free as well, which meant I had to twist it back into place. Never a particularly fun task, but my pent-up frustrations combined with the clocks already crooked visage made the task unbearable. It wasn't long until I bashed the entire thing against my desk. 

"Need help Ed?" 

I gasped, spinning around wide-eyed to find Victor sprawled out on his bed with a book in hand. 

"When did you?" I stammered looking between him and the door behind me. 

"About an hour ago." Victor set his book aside. "You were working so I figured I'd just wait 'til you were done." 

For a moment I just starred, still trying to contemplate how anyone could be that quiet. 

He hopped off his bed and crossed the room picking up my clock without asking. 

"I think it's time to get a new one." He looked right at me and dropped it into the trash bin next to my desk. 

"The stores will all be closed at this hour." I said, but made no move to further oppose him. 

The truth was I'd been thinking the same thing. 

"Not all of them." Victor assured me pulling me up onto my feet. "We're gonna have to be quick though if you want to be back by ten." 

I followed him pulling on a light jacket. The weather had been fair, but spring chill still hung crisp in the air. Victor walked ahead of me cutting a straight path across campus he led me into a twenty-four-hour pharmacy and market. 

"Hey Vic!" The clerk greeted him on sight. "What'll it be tonight?" 

"Alarm clock," Victor answered, looking sharp and cold under the wash of the store's florescent lights. 

The clerk chuckled casting me a thoughtful look. "Do I even want to know?" 

I shrugged, playing into the game. "Probably not." 

That got a hearty laugh out of the man. "Aisle five and hey whatever it is, don't get caught." 

"He seems nice." I said as Victor and I made our way down the recommended aisle. "You come here often at night?" 

Victor shrugged, seeming suddenly preoccupied by the small assortment of alarm clocks the store had to offer. 

"They're all electric." He frowned. 

"Guess it's time for a change then." I sighed grabbing the cheapest one. "At least the cord will hopefully keep me from being able to throw it against the wall while I'm sleeping." 

The corner of Victor's mouth quirked up at that. "I liked the bells though." 

"Yeah, me too." I admitted, before heading back to the clerk. "When I have more time maybe I'll fix the old one." 

"Have fun you two." The clerk jeered as he handed me the receipt. 

I waited until we stepped back out into the night air before speaking again. "I'm sorry Victor, it was never my intention to drive you out." 

Victor paused in his stride to look at me. "Wha'd'ya mean?" He asked sounding genuinely confused. 

I blinked. "You haven't slept in your bed the last three nights." 

"Oh, that's ‘cause I don't make it back before ten." He nodded. "I almost did on Thursday, but then some guy’s car broke down so I stopped to help him get it off the street." 

"If it's that hard for you we can change it." 

Victor was already shaking his head. "We made the rules for a reason Ed." 

"I'm strong as a rock, but one word can destroy me." 

"What?" Victor's brow knit. His eyes locked on mine. 

"It's a riddle. It's you. I mean—the answer is silence." I sputtered. "You are silent. I made that rule because I was afraid, you'd wake me, but I didn't sleep well last night because I was worried about you." 

Victor frowned. "Don't worry about me Ed. I can take care of myself." 

We trudged along in silence for a while after that. 

"Thank you for taking me to the store." I amended lamely after a minute or so. 

He shrugged noncommittally. "You seem stressed and if I contributed to that then I owe you." 

"I'm the one that snapped at you." I frowned. "Twice now." 

That slow grin crept back across his face, not quite meeting his eyes. "Yeah, but that's just cause you're like me. You just need to learn how to cut loose Ed." 

"What do you mean?" I asked as we stepped back into the dormitory. 

"Do you drink?" 

"No." 

"Do you dance?" 

"No." 

"Do you ever even go out?" 

I frowned, staring him down. 

He simply leaned against the door barring my way back into our room. 

"Have you ever hit anyone before?" 

"No, why would I?" It came out a terse growl. 

"Right there, that's your problem." Victor's smile grew manic. "You're angry, but you don't do anything about it. That's why you snap. That's why you smash alarm clocks without out even waking up. You're just like me!" 

I was torn between screaming at him and shutting down. His words were accusatory, but the way he spoke... He was so excited. Like he wanted to build me up rather than tear me down. I'd never encountered anything like it before. I didn't know how to respond. 

Finally, I struck on a thought. 

"You don't seem angry." 

"That's because I've learned how to cut loose." His grin slid back into a more easy-going smirk. 

He pushed the door open behind him, letting me in first before flopping onto his bed. 

"I used to be like you. I'd just bottle it up, until I blew up. The way my parents used to look at me..." He shook his head. "They even took me to a psychologist. Not a fun experience, do not recommend, but it made me realize I had to take control. Y'know, hold it in when I had to, but then pick and choose when to vent. You need to vent, Ed." 

"I'll take that under advisement," I said not quite meeting his eyes. 

The whole conversation was making me anxious. I neatly unboxed my new alarm clock and began fiddling with it, hoping Victor would take the hint. 

"I wanna help you Ed." 

I glanced back over to find he had rolled onto his stomach watching me with his knees folded up against the wall. Why had I wanted him back? 

Still his docile demeanor helped build my resolve. 

"I don't want to drink, dance or hit people, so..." 

"Then just talk," Victor interrupted. 

I glared at him. 

He raised his brow expectantly. 

I finished setting my alarm just as the numbers flickered to 10:01. 

"I'm going to sleep," I muttered, crossing to turn off the main light before entering the bathroom. 

I heard Victor let out a huff of annoyance, but by the time I emerged he was in his sweatpants waiting out his turn for the bathroom. 

It took me well over an hour to fall asleep. I just lay there staring off into the blurry middle-distance. I hated the red light the digital clock cast and that, though fuzzy, I could still make out its massive shifting digits as minute by minute sleep alluded me. 

I thought back through my day. Tried to think of how I could have handled things better with Simon. Tried to work through the odd puzzle that was Victor Zsasz.


	3. Alarm Clock

EHHHRRR EHHHRRR EHHHRRR 

I snapped awake, fully alert, and decided not to give up on fixing my old alarm clock. 

Victor grumbled something that ended in 'obnoxious', rolled over and covered his head with his pillow. 

I hit the snooze button before remembering I had to flip a switch to permanently stop it. 

As I pulled on my favorite ensemble, I told myself ‘today would be better’. 

It was not. 

I was thankful that at least Victor was absent when I got back to the room. I tried to lose myself in my studies, when that failed, I remembered the repairs needed for my old alarm clock. 

I reached into the waste paper basket, but found it empty. Victor, always diligent in his cleanliness, must have taken the trash out with him on his way to class. 

I grit my teeth and clenched my fists. I know it was foolish to hold any ill will toward the man when he was just trying to be kind, but in that moment I truly hated Victor Zsasz. 

There was a communal dumpster outside the dorm and conveniently at the end of the hall closest to math building. Victor's first class. 

I borrowed a lab coat, safety goggles, and the thickest set of nitrile gloves I could find for the occasion. I was very academic with my sorting through the waste, but of course the bag that contained our room's trash had managed to sink to the very bottom. Somehow in extracting it, or far more likely, when Victor had mashed it down as far as he could with his jock-esque physique, the bag had ruptured. My clock was not amongst its contents. Still I endured, pulling out bag after bag and then scouring the rubbish packed in beneath, but as daylight faded, I realized it was a lost cause. 

I trudged back up to the room defeated. Victor was eating on his bed, he sat up when I entered. 

"Where you been?" He asked setting his food aside. 

"Don't talk to me." I announced before heading straight into the shower. 

When I finished Victor was gone. I wondered vaguely where he slept, or if he slept. 

I ultimately decided I didn't care. If this was to be our relationship, so be it. I knew from experience things could've been far worse.

* * *

EHHHRRR EHHHRRR EHHHRRR 

It occurred to me that Victor may have left just to avoid my wretched new alarm. 

I had an epiphany just as I finished my last class of the day. 

I hated life. 

I had been born into this world with two parents, one who was vile and abusive, while the other was cowardly and weak. Worse still I was gifted with an intellect that made me strong enough to find a way to survive it and gave me enough raw willpower to get out. Only now I had gotten out, and I had found the rest of the world was just as rotten as the pit of despair I'd crawled out of. Even this vast vestibule of learning was tainted, with people... 

I flung open the door to my room daring Victor to be present and to try to talk to me. I relaxed a fraction when I determined he was still out. 

I didn't even try to study. I kicked off my shoes and fell into bed. Pulling off my glasses I reached over to set them on the bedside table and stopped. 

My old alarm clock was back. 

I sat up, readjusting my glasses, before gently prizing it off the table. It had been repaired, finely tuned. For a moment I just held it feeling the soft thrum of its gears shifting as it ticked along. 

There was a hand-written receipt loosely looped over the left bell. 

It read: V. Zsasz. Pickup 1pm. 

Guilt crushed me. 

Victor had been nothing but kind to me and I'd returned it at every turn with blatant hostility. 

"Oh, good you're here." 

I turned to find Victor standing in the doorway. He held up my new alarm clock by its cord; as if he'd caught a particularly bothersome rat by its tail. 

"Can we blow this thing up, please!?" The way he stressed the final word made it more of a demand than a request, but I wasn't in the mood to deny him anyway. 

"What did you have in mind?" I asked. 

A wicked smirk rose up his face pooling over into his eyes. I found myself matching it.

* * *

In one night, I learned a considerable amount about both myself and Victor Zsasz. 

For Victor I learned that:

  * He was able to pick locks (I immediately requested he teach me). 
  * Given a list of instructions he would follow them to the letter. 
  * His complete disregard for personal space extended to taking whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, and leaving wads of cash around in hopes that someone else would replace the items, he took.



As for myself I learned that:

  * I enjoyed giving impromptu lessons and sharing my vast wealth of knowledge, even if it required me to break down simple concepts into their most base levels. 
  * Given the opportunity to wait outside, I would rather make myself an accessory to an act of burglary. 
  * If necessary, I would have been willing to take what was required without leaving any form of compensation. 



I also began to understand what Victor meant by ‘cut-loose’. 

At first, I followed him unquestioningly. I was over eager in my sudden quest for adventure, but it didn't take me long to recognize where we were headed. 

"Why East End?" I forced the words from my lips before my second thoughts could fully strangle me. 

"No one pays attention to East End." Victor answered still smiling. "I hear cops wont even enter the Bowery anymore." 

That was the whole problem though, wasn't it? If we got into trouble here, no one was coming to get us. 

I said nothing. Not wanting to sound meek, but I made sure to match my stride to Victor's, fearing an attack from behind. 

"Do you come here often?" I asked hoping to find comfort in his familiarity. 

"No, not particularly.” He shrugged inspecting a few warehouses at the end of the block, eventually selecting a barren one with a slack roof. "Let's setup in here." 

Victor handed me his lock picks. He knelt down next to me whispering encouragements on how to push and shift the tumblers. 

My heart was pounding in against my eardrum. As much as I'd wanted to learn the new craft, I hated the sudden pressure to perform. Even though Victor's words were calm and patient. I simply, Could Not Fail. 

I gasped when I felt the lock give under my ministrations. 

Victor thumped me so hard on the back I jumped nearly snapping his picks off in the lock. Luckily, he didn't seem to notice or care. 

Inside the warehouse was cavernous. Wind moaned low and persistent through a row of broken windows, and an unpleasant dampness rose up from a set of grates that undoubtedly led down into the sewers. 

I hesitated by the door upon entry, but Victor strode in as if he owned the place. He turned back to me once he reached the center of the room. 

"Told ya it'd be enough space." He said spreading his arms and his grin. 

"Yes," I replied moving to join him. "But why is it empty?" 

Victor shrugged. "It's probably for crime. Move stuff in. Move stuff out. Keep stuff hidden." His lip curled with a bit of disdain. "My dad says the cops in this city are all either on some criminal’s payroll or too scared to do shit. It sucks." 

"I agree." I knelt laying out our pilfered chemicals and equipment. "But at least tonight it'll play into our favor." 

Victor smiled at that, dropping to the floor next to me, like a child on Christmas morning who'd just unwrapped his first train set. 

Instructing Victor was an exercise in breaking down steps into sub steps. It was a little tiresome. I couldn't believe his lack of knowledge on simple units of measurement, but in a way, it was also cathartic. I had full control. He was an apt student determined to do everything perfect the first time and overly eager to please. 

If I'd wanted to, I could have told him to mix the chemicals in a way that would have blown his hands off. 

Lucky for him I was actually starting to appreciate his company. 

Before that night I had never considered making a bomb. I didn't follow any form of instructions. Victor's request to blow up the alarm clock had simply started my wheels turning and it proved a fairly easy puzzle to solve. 

It took us less than fifteen minutes to assemble the entire thing. The alarm clock was of course predominantly displayed. 

I tapped the snooze button then bolted back to what Victor and I had decided would be a safe distance. I turned back just in time to watch the red-lit digits comically count down to its own demise. 

EHHHRRR EHHHRRR 

##  **BOOM**

Windows burst, the entire block probably rattled with the way the building shook. Both Victor and I were flung backwards so hard we hit the wall twenty feet behind us. We were definitely too close. 

For a while I just lay there trying to regain my breath. My nose bled, my ears were ringing and of course I couldn't see. My glasses had ended up who knows where. 

The next thing I knew Victor was practically on top of me shouting, "Are you okay?" 

He shoved my glasses onto my face just in time for me to watch blood drip from his left ear onto my shirt. 

I frowned taking Victor's hand he pulled me back onto my feet. My shirt was a lost cause, so was the building. The blast had set its low hanging roof ablaze. 

We left promptly. I wondered if the fire department would come or if they'd let the slums burn. We were a few blocks away when I heard the sirens. Oddly enough it filled me with relief rather than dread, somehow even then I knew we wouldn't get caught. 

Victor kept jerking his head to the side like a dog. It was annoying, but I said nothing because the blood from his ear was still running down the side of his face and if we didn't want to get caught, he couldn't go see a doctor for it. 

"Can you hear?" I asked at length. 

He shrugged, tilting his good ear up. "This one's okay." 

He flashed me one of his manic grins as the blood from his ear dribbled down his chin and onto his shirt. 

"That was fun, right Ed?" 

Fun? How was getting concussed fun? How was possible permanent hearing loss fun? How was grossly miscalculating a potentially deadly blast radius fun? 

I really don't think he gained full use of that ear back, I don't know if he can hear out of it at all. He should have hated me for that. I would have. 

I frowned missing a step. Listening to the distant wail of the sirens. I could smell the smoke heavy in the air. 

I never saw the man in the shadows. I hadn't even realized I'd stupidly paused right in front of an alleyway. I honestly didn't even fully comprehend what happened until I was back in my bed that night. 

At the time it was all just: A glint off silver under the guttering lamps. Victor's shadow crossing back over my path and then blood and screaming. 

At time I didn't register what Victor said after flicking the mugger's blade through the side of his left nostril. His exact words wouldn't return to me until much later. 

"If you'd touched him, I would have taken your fingers, but now I'll just settle for recognizing your face. Spread the word and stay out of my way." 

The man ran, leaving a trail of crimson into the darkness. Victor chucked the knife after him, before turning back to me. 

"You gotta watch yourself out here, Ed," he said, jauntily resuming his course. 

At the time I merely blinked and followed. 

I did my best cleaning out Victor's ear when we got back to the room. I told him it was probably a ruptured eardrum and silently prayed he hadn't fractured his skull. We both agreed going to the doctor was out of the question. We both placed our clothes in a trash instead of the hamper. 

After that I went to sleep. The whole night's experience felt like a strange dream.


	4. Parents

Brrrrrrrrriiiiiiinnnnnnnngggggggg 

I tapped the top of my alarm clock to stop the bells. All the pains and stiffness that had been fought off by sheer adrenalin last night were making themselves felt today. 

I grabbed my glasses, rolled out of my bed and shuffled over to Victor's. Thoughts of contusions and hematomas gripped my chest and squeezed. I didn't know what I'd do if he was dead. I leaned forward preparing to take his pulse and watched a slow grin start creeping up his face. 

"Hi Ed." He chuckled. 

I finally caught my breath. 

"How's your ear?" I asked taking a seat on the edge of his bed. He had to be at least as sore as I was. 

"It's fine," He said opening his eyes to watch me. 

"Can you hear out of it?" I pressed. 

His smile only broadened. "Nope." 

"Victor, I'm sorry-- 

"Don't apologize," he reprimanded, "I'm the one that wanted to do it and it was way better than I anticipated." 

He fluidly slid up into a seated position locking his eyes with mine. "You're my friend, Ed. I want you to go out with me like last night. Maybe no more bombs, but I don't want you to back down again." 

His head slowly tilted to the left. I realized he was listening, awaiting my response. The way he was watching me with such intent combined with the placement of his head looked just like a stray waiting for food to fall. 

I couldn't help, but laugh. The sternness of his brow evaporated into a questioning look. 

"Always with the speeches," I commented, unwilling to admit my humor was caused by his misfortune. 

"Business major." He raised his hand as if it were an admission of guilt. 

"It was fun." I confessed and was surprised to find I actually meant it. 

It had been an escape from mediocrity. I'd loved it. The tension of stealing from the university's labs. The feel of the cold wind running down the back of my neck as we set an even pace away from the crime scene. The roar of the explosion. The thrill of being able to walk away from something with enough raw power to engulf an entire warehouse. The knowledge that Victor and I had gotten away with all of it. 

"What are we going to do next?" I asked. 

Victor grinned and began to edge his way closer.

* * *

We didn't go out every night. We didn't go out every week. And some of the nights when I stayed in to study, despite Victor's teasing that I was already too smart, he still didn't come back to me before ten. 

It was odd. Having a friend. I'd thought I'd sort of had some before growing up, but now they all paled in comparison to Victor. 

He made me realize that people I thought respected me did not, people I thought listened to me did not. Not like he did. 

It was odd and it was wonderful. 

He taught me how not to drink at bars and be beloved as a designated driver. He taught me how not to dance at night clubs and still have girls run up to me at every given opportunity. 

He taught me it was all meaningless that the people there were only interested in us for the novelty of how different we were from the typical clientele. 

He took me to business parties, where he always introduced me as the smartest person on campus and complained about me being under marketed as such. It was a joke, and a test, and a trick, and I reveled in the fact that not a person among them could stump me with any of their ceaseless questioning. 

I started asking them riddles just to generate a pause in the conversation. 

Honestly though all of that was just killing time. Burning off excess energy. 

At least twice a month we truly went out. 

It turned out our 24-hour pharmacy and market clerk, Harold, had a cousin who worked late night security at the Gotham City Wrecking Yard. Victor invested in a sledge hammer. He kept it under his bed. It was a thing of beauty watching Victor with that hammer. I felt I was witnessing Czernobog himself. 

It made me wonder what drove his rage. I suspected it had to do with his father although he only spoke of him in the highest regard. 

When he finally came back to me shaking from his exertions offering me his hammer. I found I wasn't angry enough to do it justice. I was simply content in seeing someone else understood the depths of hatred that corrupted my very soul. 

One night we hotwired one of the cars and took it for a joyride. Victor tore up one of his very expensive suits jumping out of the car before it plunged into the river. I helped him limp back home and patched up the road rash on his arm and leg. 

Harold's cousin turned us down the next time we came out, but quickly changed his tune when Victor pulled out his wallet. 

The way Victor spent money made me uncomfortable. I knew his parents were rich, not him and I had learned long ago not to trust patents. No matter how much Victor seemed to love them.

* * *

"Everyone you're going to want to work for is going to be there!" 

"No." 

"Please!?" 

I blinked at him. He'd used this tactic before. 

"When it says plus one, it means arm candy girl, Victor. You know that." 

"You've gone to plenty of parties with me before, miss arm candy girl." 

I glared at him. 

"Sorry," he muttered sheepishly backing off to sulk on his bed. 

I sighed. I'd learned if I didn't correct things now, he'd be gone for at least a week and when he'd come back, he'd have some untreated infected wound hidden about his person. 

"Your parents are going to be there. They're going to want you to bring a girl." 

"No." 

And he was back practically on top of me again, like some over eager puppy. 

"They know when I bring girls it's not like I'm dating them. They know what I'm like Ed that's why I want you to go with me. They don't believe we're actually friends." 

Victor Zsasz only seemed to express four facial settings: Confused, Confident, Manic, and Rage. Everything else seemed to fall into a blank stare. 

So, seeing the brief flicker of utmost sorrow strike across his face wounded me in ways I still can't describe. 

"They don't think I'm capable..." He trailed off, because it was true Victor never lied, but I’d leaned, he also didn't always want to tell the full truth. 

"I'll go." I heard the words leave my throat raw and unmetered. 

I saw the way Victor's eyes lit up as one of his manic grins took hold and yet I couldn't believe it myself. 

I couldn't have said that. I couldn't have agreed to go, because the thought of meeting Victor's parents left me deeply unsettled. I had decided while watching Victor tear the roof off a car one night, that I didn't want to know what they'd done to him. 

He offered to get me a suit. He said I could wear whatever I wanted, but he thought maybe I'd want a suit since he was planning on introducing me to everyone who hired chemists. I almost declined. I don't even know why. It was no secret that he had more money than me, he always insisted on paying tabs wherever he was involved in any way and he'd become a notable food thief. I suppose it was because this was the first time that excuse managed to fall flat. That he couldn't say he had taken something from me and was merely paying me back. In the end though, common sense won out. It was a business party he was going to be introducing me to potential future employers. We both should look our best.

* * *

Victor’s tailor loved him in the way everyone he paid seemed to love him. Like he was some incorrigible rogue and they were more than happy to assist him in whatever mischief he intended to get up to, especially when he left them with a wink and an exorbitant tip. 

While he was taking my measurements, the man whispered in conspiratorial tone that Victor was his only client that never came in for repairs. He always bought new suits. It took me a moment of watching the man’s eager grin to realize he was fishing for what happened to them. I smiled politely back at him, until my point was made, and was surprised to find the tailor’s smile only grew. 

It was odd to consider that no one really knew what Victor Zsasz did, not even I was privy to all of it. I'm sure back then he would have told me if I'd asked, but most mornings I was more concerned with getting to class on time than inquiring as to how his sleeve got torn or why there was blood on his cuff. I suppose in a way I knew. 

He had to cut loose.

* * *

When a suit fits, well and truly fits, you don't feel it. At the founder's gala it made me feel naked. It didn't help that Victor flowed so easily there, his words flying at a mile a minute as he pointed out different company heads and explained prospective chemistry positions and expected pay ranges. He introduced me to all of them. Many were curt little exchanges, they knew his parents more so than they knew him. 

Halfway through the evening he spotted the Wayne's and told me, that was the company I wanted to work for, and yet he didn't introduce me. I thought it was because of the steady crowd of well-wishers, they'd recently had their son, but I was wrong. 

Memory is a funny thing. I remember that I knew Zsasz’s parents when I saw them. I realize now I'd never seen them prior so I shouldn't have known. Victor must have done something to give it away. I think he grabbed my arm. I know he slowed his pace to make sure I followed him over. 

What can be said for Victor's parents? They were not what I was expecting and yet in seeing them I could see Victor reflected them completely. 

Hector Zsasz was every lie television ever told you a father was meant to be, bright, energetic, full of concern and understanding. When Victor introduced us the man practically dove for my hand dragging me closer to him. He was so excited I almost shut down, the only thing that saved me were his eyes, I'd grown used to that dark manic glint in Victor's it helped me come to terms with the sudden onslaught of raw energy a bit better. Still with Victor I could tell him when I needed more space and Hector was, by far, more boisterous than his son. 

It was Kathryn who drew me away from him. I don't even recall how she did it. I just remember wondering how I was going to get my hand back and then Kathryn was leading me away to the refreshment table. 

Where Hector explained Victor's bouts of mania, Kathryn explained his silence. She was the type of woman that could weather any storm. I could feel her cold blue eyes cut me through and take me apart. It wasn't like with Victor... I could see where people found his stare unnerving, I guess. Calculating, yes, but it was born of interest and appraisal. Kathryn on the other hand I felt was looking for my sticking-places. 

"Tell me about yourself Mr. Nashton." She commanded. 

My answer to that question had been well rehearsed from my scholarship interviews and yet with her I gave pause. 

Victor never lied. There had to be a reason for that and it wasn't Hector. 

"My father beat my mother until she decided suicide was a better alternative and then he moved on to me." I stated meeting her cold blue facets. 

She didn't comment on how dreadful that was, she didn't even raise an eyebrow she just continued to stare as though I'd told her it was raining outside, so I continued. 

"The scholarships I've earned at Gotham University are my way away from him. When student housing put Victor and I together I think they wanted us to tear one another apart. I'm not violent like Victor is, but we understand one another." 

"And what do you hope to gain by his friendship?" She asked and her eyes dropped ever so slightly to take in my suit. 

"I can't afford to live on my own. I need a roommate I can tolerate. Victor is the only friend I have. I'm not concerned about money Mrs. Zsasz." 

Her eyes snapped back onto mine. 

"Oh, please, call me Kathryn, Hector will be the first to tell you just how much I loathe his surname." It was a flat statement. "There are few things I care for in this world Mr. Nashton and I am exceedingly fortunate that of those few things I know my son can take care of himself. Still you should know, if you find a way to hurt him, you'll wish your father had killed you." 

"Kathryn!" Hector shouted over the thundering of my heartbeat. "Bring Edward over here, I want him to hear my anecdote about Victor and Thomas' butler!" 

I soon found myself between Hector Zsasz and Thomas Wayne. A small crowd had been drawn around them. I wasn't sure if it was the Wayne entourage or if Hector's enthusiasm had drawn them in as he regaled us with the events of a business meeting gone awry. 

It was funny. I remember forcing myself to chuckle along at the appropriate parts as I watched Kathryn whisper into her son’s ear. 

"And so, his butler comes in red in the face and he says" Hector paused encouraging Thomas Wayne to join in. 

"If that's what boys are like these days you better not have one or that's it, I'll quit." Thomas supplied in a feigned British accent. 

"And then Victor he runs up to us and he shouts, Dad, Dad I want to be a butler when I grow up!" Hector laughed. "Then Thomas says...” 

“Well we may have an opening." Thomas added with a laugh. 

The whole crowd joined in. 

"Okay, but when you're eleven and some guy jumps off a building, they are instantly the coolest person you know." Victor defended not missing a beat and causing the whole group to redouble in its fits. 

"Where is Alfred? I haven't seen him." Victor asked once Thomas had regained his senses. 

"That's the kicker." Thomas chuckled. "He's at home watching Bruce." 

The party began to wind down after that. I had a discussion with Thomas Wayne. At the time seemed important, but now I can't even recall what we spoke of, and then I found myself back in the clutches of Hector Zsasz. 

After my experience with Kathryn I found my anxiety already dangling over the edge. I was thankful he kept it short. He gave me the number to his private line. Those dark eyes were so like Victor's and yet I'd never seen Victor look that way. 

Worry, deep, gnawing, bone-tired worry. It was out of place and unexpected. "Edward, I am so thankful for you. Victor has always been such a lone wolf. Please." He enunciated the word just like his son. "If anything, ever happens, please, call me first."

* * *

"What did you say to my mom?" Victor asked as I wondered how he managed to shed his suit so fast. 

I was still on the tie. 

"I just told her the truth. That we're friends. That we get one another, and that I'm not after the family fortune." I shrugged, which was a bad idea since I was only halfway out of my vest at the time. 

"She really likes you," Victor said. "I think, she thinks, you're gonna keep me out of trouble." 

"Well, I'm not going to help you burn down the dorm. So, I guess she's got that to look forward to. I'll be honest your parents weren't what I was expecting.” 

Victor cocked his right ear up, brow knit. “What were you expecting?” 

I looked down pretending to focus on unbuttoning my shirt. 

Victor never lied. 

“I thought, that you were angry because of them.” I pulled my shirt the rest of the way off before looking back up at him. I expected him to be angry. 

He looked sad. I didn't think he was capable of that. 

“What?” For the first time in my life I felt the urge to reach out and touch someone. It was an odd impulse, probably misguided by the amount of times I'd seen him wounded. Something in my subconscious must have thought he was hurt. Suffice to say my better reasoning won out and stayed my hand. 

The emotion didn't linger. Even as I asked it simmered back into angry confusion. Not directed at me. Victor Zsasz was angry at the world. 

“Nothing.” He shrugged. “It's just you know I'm here for you Ed, if you ever want to talk.” 

“I know,” I confirmed before secluding myself off into the bathroom. 

I thought back to Kathryn whispering into her son's ear. What had she told him? 

I had yet to broach the subject of my former living conditions with Victor. 

**_I am the scales that compare a feather to a heart. People pass me constantly. I can be reserved, but more often I fly freely._**

When I emerged, Victor was already sleeping. 

I lay awake far longer than I should have. It was as though part of what had bonded me to Victor had been stripped away. Certainly, some of the man's odder qualities had stemmed from his parents conditioning his behavior, but I could see now they had his best intentions at heart. Where I had learned to struggle and strive to survive on my own, Victor had learned to rely on others for protection. That's why he’d reached out to me. This was probably the first time he was away from his parents. It was that night I realized the bright, confident, manic, business major was scared of being alone.


	5. Bad News

Finals week as always seeped into the school unnoticed, gorged itself on time and infested the halls with anxiety. 

Even Victor stopped going out. We continuously quizzed one another on various courses of study. I learned several intricacies of successful business stratagem. He rambled of chemistry jargon like it was old hat. We both strived to stump one another with math, neither of us succeeded. Numbers were his thing. 

And then it was over. 

We both got A's across the board. I wasn't surprised for myself, but I felt an odd sense of pride for Victor's accomplishments. Like his grades somehow made him a better roommate, a better friend. 

It truly was the beginning of the end though. Looking back on it now, there was nothing I could have done to change the inevitable, and yet I still feel a wave of guilt wash over me every time I think of it. 

After finishing my last final, I arrived at the room to find Victor had somehow amassed more suitcases than could have ever been stored within the confines of our close quarters. 

"What is this?" I asked a very manic Victor Zsasz. 

"It's a surprise! My parents have a yacht we go out on every summer and this year they said you can come. We can go anywhere you want Ed. My parents just like being out on the boat they let me drive most of the time." 

He was practically bubbling over with excitement. I didn't know what to say. How to say it. In the end my silence betrayed me. 

"What's wrong Ed?" He asked finally catching on. 

"I—I can't go." 

He stilled, face falling into its neutral expression, right ear tilted up waiting for me to elaborate. 

I swallowed hard. "My scholarships, I have to keep full units even in summer. I'm already registered for classes. Victor I'm sorry, I thought you knew." 

Victor blinked. Then took a step forward. "I can pay your way Ed." 

The thought of how much that would cost had me floored. "No." 

His mouth twitched like he wanted to argue, but then thought better of it. "Your main one's the Wayne Foundation, right? I could call— 

"Victor." I interrupted softly. "I don't want any special considerations." I locked eyes with him imploring him to understand my meaning. "I have to get through school of my own volition. It's important to me." 

Victor's gaze dropped to his feet completely crestfallen. "I understand." 

I bit my lower lip before forcing myself to continue. "I don't think you do. If you're taking the summer off student housing will have to reassign me. I can't afford this room on my own." My voice hitched at the end. 

I slumped down into my desk chair. I already knew what would happen either Victor would become enamored with his new roommate once he returned or he'd pick a fight and get expelled. I shut down. 

Victor sat on my desk, edging in so close his knee pressed against my arm. 

"That's not gonna happen Ed. I'll just register for classes and pay my share." 

I looked up at him baffled. 

"My parents will understand. You're my best friend, y'know." 

For the second time in so few moments I found myself at a loss for words. 

Victor set out at once to the administration office. 

I had no idea what to do with all his suitcases. Even though he'd told me not to worry about them, it was just an overwhelming number of suitcases. His parents yacht had to be huge. 

He returned with a full course load and promises that he was going to have someone come pick up the suitcases. 

We went out. Admittedly the suitcases were a contributing factor to that decision, but when we came back, they were still there. 

Victor called his parents. I tried not to listen, watching Victor pace made me anxious enough. In the end he dropped the phone back on its receiver looking utterly defeated. 

"My mom says I have to go." His words were hollow, like he didn't believe them himself. 

After a moment he shook his head. "I'll just not go. I mean they can't make me, right?" 

Thinking of Kathryn, I fully believed she could and would even if she had to send a team of men to drag Victor out. She was the calm in the eye of a storm. 

Once more Victor must have caught on from my expression alone. 

"Shit." He muttered to no one in particular. "I'll keep the classes, I'll— 

"No— 

"Just stay here Ed!" He shouted over me. 

I sat dumbfounded. He'd never raised his voice at me before. 

A rare flicker of something kindred to sorrow crossed his face. "Please. Just be here when I come back." 

I sighed giving in. "Okay."

* * *

I couldn't help but feel Victor packed fewer of his things than he had originally meant to. A driver picked up him and his excess baggage, promptly at 9:30pm and for the first in my life, I was left entirely alone. 

I petitioned to pick up an additional class, but my academic advisor denied me. I was sore at her for it, but upon returning to the room I realized I already had another class I could pick up. Student housing wouldn't let Victor stay on the room without keeping a class. He'd intended to simply retake it once he returned, but I, admittedly foolishly, thought I could simply take it for him. It was some public relations course; how hard could that be? 

The first day I realized my mistake. The curriculum was indeed simple enough. The teacher was of the same tired ilk that made up much of GU's staff. The problem was I had forgotten to account for the students. They were all just talking for the sake of hearing themselves speak, it seemed. That's not to say chemists didn't talk, but typically there was at least some reason for the talking... 

I'd forgotten. Victor could remain silent for hours if the mood took him, he was a listener first and foremost, but I'd seen him hold his own in conversations numerous times at business parties. 

I groaned inwardly. Pretending to be Victor was going to be more trying than I thought. I muddled my way through to the end of class and bolted from the room already thinking I would not return for the remainder. Before I could exit the hall though I felt a hand on my shoulder. 

I turned wide-eyed to find a girl smiling at me. Carolyn Jones, journalism major, I recalled, from our go around in class where we had to tell people about ourselves. She wanted to become an investigative journalist.... 

"Yes, Carolyn?" I asked allowing the urgency I felt about getting away to slip into my voice hoping she'd take the hint. 

Her smile broadened. "I wanted to let you in on a little secret," she said allowing the remaining students drift out of earshot before continuing. "You're not Victor Zsasz, I took Speech with him." 

My face froze as my mind flew into overdrive. I'd been caught. I'd been caught. I'd been caught! 

She chuckled. "Don't worry I'm not going to tell on you. I just wanted to know what's up. There's no way this class is going to be worse than Speech. So... Where's Victor? Did he hire you?" 

I felt my heartbeat kick back into place. I leapt at the offer of exchanging information for her silence a little too heartily. "No, he's on vacation. I'm his roommate. He didn't even ask me to take this course for him, I was just bored." I stammered. 

"You're his chemist friend, aren't you?" She asked appraisingly. "He's lucky to have you then. I wish my friends would take classes for me." 

"He spoke about me?" I asked taken aback. 

"I had a night class last semester he used to walk with me back to the dorms sometimes." She blushed. "My roommate used to get mad because sometimes the door would stick and it would wake her up... We sort of got on the subject of roommates from there. He's a good guy, Victor." 

I nodded sheepishly. "He told you about our rules, but did he tell you I tried to repeal the curfew one?" 

She shook her head. We started to slowly walk down the hall as I continued. 

"The thing is he's completely silent, like abnormally silent. I don't think science has an explanation for how quiet he is." 

She nodded along with me. "No, I believe you. Remember how I said I had trouble with that door? I'd have to like throw my shoulder into it to get it to open, but when Victor tried it, not even a click! Just glide on open like he's the door whisperer or something." 

I found myself grinning. Just as we came to a fork in our paths. Mine would lead back to the room hers to the library perhaps. 

We both paused realizing our split interests. 

"I don't think I'll be back in class tomorrow." I admitted. 

"Oh." She frowned. "Well, I better ask then... Sorry I was just thinking, cause you're a chemistry major, right? And, um, well..." She shrugged, smiling once more. "Victor sort of said you're the smartest guy here." 

"He does that." I asserted humbly, not that I didn't believe it, but because people like when you're humble. 

"I have this project I've been working on. It's a sort of a historical article, I've been researching the effects of chemical warfare. Did you know there's people who still think we should just gas people and, well, I just keep thinking if they knew, if they really just understood what a terrible thing, they were suggesting they'd change their mind." She sighed catching her breath. "And I'm rambling, anyway if you know chemicals really well and you don't mind, I was thinking maybe you could look over my notes sometime? Make sure I'm depicting the effects correctly. You know they don't really go into depth of what happens in most texts. It's like no one wants to talk about it." 

So many unnecessary words and yet I found myself nodding along. "How about this weekend, if you don't already have plans?" 

"No, I don't, I'll plan on you. Mr. Not Victor Zsasz." With a quick turn she trotted off. 

I found myself watching her depart. I wanted to tell her my name. I attended class the rest of the week. She spoke to me daily and yet somehow, I kept neglecting to tell her my name. 

Eventually I started following her to the library after class, helping her research interesting facts to use in her articles. It was an enjoyable exercise, I'd always loved new trivia. 

We went out. 

"Honestly, I don't know how you even survive." She stated sounding completely aghast. 

I shrugged, feeling my smile tug up my cheeks. "It's just never really been an issue for me. Victor loathes television, l can't afford a radio— 

"Newspapers? Magazines? Something!" 

"They all cost money." 

"Well, Mr. Enigma, I happen to subscribe to no less than three newspapers, so I'll just have to pass them off to you when I finish them. It just won't do! The smartest man at Gotham University not knowing the daily happenings in the world around him." 

"I look forward to my future enlightenment." I chuckled. 

She still didn't know my name, but I'd given up on telling her since she had taken to coming up with new monikers for me weekly. I was rather taken by Mr. Enigma obviously. 

On more than one occasion I thought about inviting her back to the room, but as I explained to her, the rules didn't allow for it. Victor and I had agreed upon allowing in no guests and even in his absence or perhaps even more so because of it I found myself reluctant to break our pact. 

She inquired if that meant that if she kept me out past ten, I'd have to find somewhere else to sleep. 

I supposed it would. 

Our relationship never developed past teasing. As Summer semester drew to a close Victor drew nearer to shore. 

I had completed the bulk of my summer finals the day it happened or maybe I should say the day after it happened. Semantics... 

I just remember the way she looked at me when I entered the classroom. How to describe... Scared. No. Concerned. Yes, but there was something else as well. I know what it was. That realization that I would never see her the same way again. 

I rushed through the test haphazardly. I still got an A on the course but... Of course, none of it mattered. I was pacing when she came out. I thought someone had hurt her. She looked hurt. I wanted to tell her everything would be okay and then find the person who'd made her look like that and do something worse. 

She handed me a copy of the Gotham Gazette. As she'd done countless times before. I didn't even look at it, still trying to seek answers in her eyes. She looked down and I followed her gaze. 

I know it may all sound trivial to you now. You know, at least in part, how this story ends, but you have to understand a part of my life died that day. 

Victor Zsasz was dead. 

I don't think I cried. Maybe I did, but I don't remember doing so. I gasped. The air was knocked out of my lungs. My back hit the wall before I could regain my balance. 

The headline read: Owner and CEO of Z Industrial killed in boating accident. 

It was on the fourth page. 

I can still recall the article in its entirety. Most was dedicated to the manner in which the accident occurred. Kathryn was hardly mentioned. Victor was a footnote. 

Dead. 

I had experienced loss before. I'd been angry when my mother abandoned me. 

This was different. This was... Being taken from home, being shut out and told you would never belong. 

I couldn't go back. 

Carolyn stayed with me, tried to talk to me, but I couldn't hear her. 

She called me Ed. She knew my name and that hurt too. 

I don't remember what I said to her to make her stop. To convince her to leave me alone. I think I made her cry. I just realized—I never apologized for that and I really should have. 

I went back to the room and dragged Victor's sledge hammer out from under his bed. I lugged it all the way down to the wrecking yard on foot. Harold's cousin let me in without question. 

I swung. Putting the full force of the pain I felt into every blow. I swung. Hard enough to drown out the screaming in my mind. I swung. Trying to keep tempo with the inexorable pounding of my heart. I swung, until my arms failed and my legs gave way beneath me. 

I lay there sobbing in the midst of my destruction. Finally understanding, and yet knowing I had no one now to share it with.


	6. Long Road Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING!  
> This chapter is a cesspit of depression and contains suicidal thoughts and actions!

I missed my last two finals. Luckily my previous efforts within the classes proved enough that I still retained A's in both, but to be truthful, at the time, I didn't care. 

The only reason I returned to the room at all the next day was because I felt compelled to return Victor's hammer to its final resting place under his bed. 

After that I set to wander. I felt like dying. I left every cut I had sustained from my previous night's exertions to bleed. I ended up following the same initial trek Victor had led me on into East End. 

After I passed the burnt-out husk of the warehouse, I realized, I was going home. Like some sickly passenger pigeon returning to roost knowing only death awaited it there. Kathryn's parting words rang true in my mind. 

I hoped he'd killed me.

* * *

He had just stepped out of the kitchen when I opened the door. We stood staring at one another, my hand still on the door handle, his antiquated television blared on between us. I had grown taller than him. It seemed every inch of him had sunken in, leaving a gaunt sagging specter before me. 

On the tiny tube-screen an angry red flame bobbed in the darkness. 

As I watched he seemed to come back to himself, that slow cruel yellow-toothed sneer drawing back his slack cheeks. 

“What the hell do you want?” 

“My best friend died.” I hadn't meant to speak, it left my lips as barely more than a whisper. 

“What? Speak up you louse. They finally found you out, huh? You little cheat.” 

I frowned, jaw clinched. 

“His patents loved him so much and now they're all dead and yet you're still here! Why are you still here?” 

“Come over here and say that to me.” 

I reflexively gasped at the click of his belt buckle. His smile darkened. 

He started towards me, glancing at the TV as the red blip finished its descent into the dark waters below. 

“Fucking liar,” He growled. “Freaks like you don't have friends.” 

I shrunk before him, stumbling back against the door as he closed in on me snapping the belt between his bony hands. 

I let it happen. I shut down. Dove as deep as I could to drown out the pain. Drown out the hot acrid breath that lapped over me. Drown out the sound of his haggard wheezing and the clink of the metal pin striking against the buckle each time he drew it back. I couldn't hear him cursing me, nor my own pathetic whimpering, but somehow the bleating of the televised news anchor seeped in. 

“After swimming an estimated thirty miles, the heir to the Zsasz family fortune is receiving treatment at Gotham General.” 

My entire being latched onto those words and started to pull myself back up. 

Victor was alive? 

I heard my breathe catch. 

“You worthless fucking liar!” 

The warm wet metal clicked sharply as I grabbed the old man's wrist. 

I felt his breath sweep over me as he gasped. 

Pain ran in hot rivulets through my body as I rose up. 

I could see the fear in his bloodshot eyes. 

I didn't hurt him. The thought didn't even cross my mind. I just pulled open the door and left.

* * *

I don't know how long it took me to get to Gotham General. I didn't consider the state I was in, I simply pushed my way through the doors, panting like a rabid dog and bleeding from my multiple abrasions and told them I needed to see Victor Zsasz. 

Suffice to say security was called and upon insisting that I did not need medical attention I was expelled. 

I threw a minor fit in their parking lot. After allowing myself to calm down, I returned to the room to get cleaned up and wait. 

I was certain he would come back.

* * *

I awoke to a knock on the door the next day, and sprang from my bed without a second thought, to open it. 

It wasn't Victor. 

Carolyn gaped at me. “What happened to you?” 

I was suddenly hyperaware of the fact I was standing in front of a woman in nothing more than my boxers and an undershirt. 

“I uh… give me a minute.” I stammered, closing the door in her face. 

I threw on the first garments I lay hands on, they ended up clashing horribly, but at least I was covered. 

“Sorry,” I said, trepidatiously opening the door once more. “I thought you'd be Victor.” 

“Okay so you heard then. I literally screamed when I saw, but seriously what happened to you, Ed?” She reached for a particularly gruesome looking gash just above my left ear. 

I pulled back and her hand lowered in response. 

“I got in a fight.” It wasn't fully a lie, and I don't think she fully believed it, but it was enough to get her to drop the matter. At least for the time being. I grabbed my bag and began trailing her down the hall to wherever she intended to lead me. 

In a way I was glad it wasn't Victor, knowing him, his reaction to my current state, especially with what he'd just been through, would have probably been more volatile. 

“So, you think he'll come back?” she asked at length. 

“Why wouldn't he?” I frowned, more than a little affronted. 

“Well, I just mean, he's inherited the whole company, right?” 

Though my feet continued forward I internally froze. I had never considered that Victor might not come back. He had been attending school to prepare for the day he'd take control of Z Industrial, but that day had come early and he was already so confident. What if he felt he didn't need to continue school? What if he became too busy to return, even if he wanted to? 

My spirits sank. 

Carolyn noticed. “I'm sure he'll come back.” She noted pushing open the doors to the library. 

I nodded, because I knew that's what she wanted me to do.

* * *

By the end of the week I'd given up on Victor. I went to the student housing authority and waited my turn, all the while wondering what they'd do with Victor's things when they reassigned me. 

I’d like to believe Francine was a good person under her coat of hostile urgency, but then again, she had sided with Simon the last time we'd crossed paths. This time she gave me a look of ‘here we go again’ and asked me what my room number was. I told her and explained that I would need a new roommate, because my room and board waiver didn't cover the expensive of the room. 

She clacked her long nails across her keyboard for a moment, then cocking a sculpted eyebrow, told me the room had been paid in full. She was shooing me out of her office before I could get in a word edgewise. 

I knew Victor must have paid, but now I worried that perhaps he'd done it as an apology for not coming back. For never coming back, because honestly why would he? 

I plodded back to the room. My room now. It just had Victor's stuff in it. 

When I opened the door, he was sitting on my desk. I stood in the doorframe staring. 

"Hey Ed." He tried valiantly for a false grin, but it faltered half way. 

I mentally smacked myself for not being here when he arrived. 

"Victor!" I rushed to his side. "I’m so sorry I wasn't here. I didn't know if you'd come back." 

He looked tired, like too much of him had been stretched too thin. It was a far cry from the roving bundle of pent up energy I was used to. 

"You heard then." He took a shaky breath. 

It hurt. It hurt knowing there was indeed a way to hurt Victor Zsasz and that his mother wasn't going to swoop in and avenge him, his father wasn't going to race to his aid and protect him. Here he sat before me a mere shell of his former self. 

I initiated contact. Wrapping my arms around his back. I had never been a fan of hugging, but I figured Victor craved proximity and needed to know that, though I paled in comparison to what he'd lost, I was still here with him. 

He latched onto me, instantly reminding me of just how much stronger he was physically. He drove his face into my shoulder and squeaked out, "I'm so glad you didn't go with me." He broke down sobbing after that for several minutes. I just held him. What else could I do? 

Eventually he finally cried himself dry. He looked all the more worn through for it. I sat down on the desk next to him, since it seemed to be his chosen comfort spot. 

He let the side of his head fall back onto my shoulder. "The smell woke me up, like burning chemicals, like the bomb. I knew something was on fire. I started shouting, but I went down to the engine room, the door was open." He paused and I thought he'd start crying again, but he pushed through it. "He was on the floor. I-I dragged him up on deck. I kept calling for my mom, but I don't think she ever got out of her cabin. Everything was on fire. I tried to go back down." He shook his head. "I dragged dad into the water with me. Tried to get him away. I couldn't do it though, he was too heavy." Tears started to bud anew. "I knew he was dead. I just didn't wanna—" He shuddered. 

"You don't have to tell me." I whispered. 

He shook his head. "Please Ed." 

Afraid of breaking his spell with further words, I let my cheek press against the top of his head to let him know I was there for him. 

After a moment he continued. "I could see the lights on shore, so I swam toward them. Another boat came. I yelled, but they didn't hear me. There was another explosion, must have hit the reserve fuel or something and the boat left. I swam all night, in the morning it was harder to tell where the shore was. I thought I was gonna die swimming in circles, but the waves carried me to shore. It took me a long time to get up. I went to the hospital, I wanted my mom to be there, like maybe the other boat got her." He shook his head again, his voice turned bitter. "I made them let me go, the board had already set up a memorial for them and scheduled the funeral. They didn't want me there, Ed. The way they kept looking at me like it was my fault. They think I did it." 

A gasp escaped my lips. "How dare they," I growled. 

"The worst part was how they tried to pretend they weren't trying to cut me out. They kept saying things like, ‘You've been through a traumatic experience, you should take a break.'" He mocked a nagging tone. "'Taking on this much stress all at once won't be good for your temperament.' And then one of them said, 'You should finish school it's what your father would have wanted'." He paused for a moment. "And then I realized I had to come back here, ‘cause he was right, if my parents saw what they were doing, they'd tell me to go to you. You're the only one left I can trust." 

I stayed quiet for a moment unsure of what to say. If the past week had taught me anything it was that I was still utterly incapable of protecting myself. Meanwhile Victor was the epitome of bold. How could I ever hope to help him? 

His head shifted on my shoulder and I realized he was watching me for an answer. 

He needed me there with him, my deficiencies didn't matter. 

"Of course," I said at length. "But how can I help?" 

"You're the smartest guy I know, Ed. After you finish school, I want you to come work with me. I'll build you a fucking lab I don't care. I just don't want to go back there alone." 

"Okay." I said it before I could decide if it was a lie or not. It was what he needed to hear, but I was far from sure if it was what I wanted to do. 

Z Industrial was geared towards construction the Zsasz family line had started out as Gotham city's sandhogs. Hector had joked that the Zsasz family started their climb to the top from more than six feet under. 

The memory struck me with a sudden grief. The thought of such a bright light as Hector sinking to bottom of sea stung, while the thought of my own father's tar stained sneer filled the void with hot pooling anger. It wasn't fair, but of course life wasn't fair. Why should death be any different? 

The answer was yes. If Victor wanted me, I could accept that I'd proven my merits to him. This would not be a handout, and I would strive to help him make Z Industrial better. 

Relieved I let myself relax only to find Victor stirring next to me. 

"I've kept you up past ten." He muttered sliding off my desk. "Sorry, Ed." 

I shook my head. "It was important." 

As he was unbuttoning his shirt, I snagged my thermals and slunk into the bathroom. The majority of the welts and wounds my father had given me were fading, but I didn't want to risk upsetting Victor further. Especially over something so trivial. 

He eyed me curiously before I turned off the light. 

"You cold Ed?" 

"One of the drawbacks of my height." I shrugged. "Poor circulation." 

He went to sleep without further questioning.


	7. Number 56

The sound of him thrashing against his bed awoke me three hours later. 

I didn't know what to do. He was struggling, fighting his nightmares. I didn't dare draw near him. 

"Victor." I hissed to no avail, so I resorted to shouting. "VICTOR!" He looked up at me startled. 

"Sorry, Ed. They drugged me when I wouldn't sleep at the hospital. I've been doing that ever since." 

He mumbled something about 'staying out' and I grabbed his shoulder to gain his full attention. 

"Do not even think about staying out all night right now I will die from worry. Do you understand?" 

Victor nodded tiredly. "I won't wake you again."

* * *

It was true after that first night I never caught him in that state again. I wasn't quite sure how he managed that at first and it made me all the more anxious for it. 

Carolyn stopped by the next day with muffins fresh from the bakery. Victor was genuinely surprised by her, as was I, since I hadn't told her he was back. She only stayed briefly though, saying she didn’t want to throw too much on Victor all at once and letting me know if we needed anything just to ask. I was less thankful than I should have been, too caught up in over analyzing the way Victor was watching her. 

I watched Victor like a hawk. I had too, if anything he was even quieter than before. He was never perturbed by my constant attention, he seemed just mildly surprised by it. It turned out, when he went out, mostly he just wandered. All over Gotham, Chinatown, Otisburg, the Diamond District, East End. I saw no rhyme or reason to it, nor did he ever seem to have any set destination. Somehow though we always completed our circuit before 10pm. 

As the start of fall semester approached, I worried about being able to keep track of him and that his timely returns would begin to waiver. 

As it turned out though I needn't have worried. It seemed the structure and forced socialization of Victor's classes were what the man needed to galvanize him. We both had a long afternoon gap between classes, I think he matched my schedule on purpose. It was nice to meet up midday though, so I never called him on it. At school he was more talkative, confident, more like the Victor Zsasz I'd known, but his smile was flawed. No longer did it curve into that manic grin that had matched his father's, and it never quite reached his eyes before dropping back down into that neutral frown he constantly wore when listening. 

There were days I tried to win that smile back, but I never quite succeeded.

* * *

Things went well enough the first few weeks, but the world has no end to its cruelty and soon enough it wound back around to strike again. 

We'd just parted ways after our afternoon break. It was the day after my first set of examines. I'd gotten all A's of course. Victor had too. I'd made sure of it. 

Of course, lesser minds were jealous. I don't even remember fully, how it came about. I think maybe he was angry about me messing up the grading curve. Simon had of course continued to be a thorn in my side throughout, but I'd outgrown him. 

Victor had been right about cutting lose from time to time. If I'd gained nothing more from it then I'd at least gained a new perspective on viewing anger in others, and the weak simpering whine Simon was producing was nothing compared to what I'd seen from Victor. 

“Don't you walk away when I'm taking to you cretin!” Simon bellowed after me. “Just because you've managed to sidle up to some rich kid you suddenly think your better than the rest of us? How much did that ‘A' cost, hmm?” 

That alone stopped me. The rest I could ignore, but I had always gotten by on my own merits and how dare he question my intelligence. 

I turned to glare at his smug face. I knew he was just trying to get at me, drag me back down to his level, but I didn't care. 

“You know I got that grade on my own.” 

“Do I? Does the professor? Y’know I would imagine if some anonymous tipster were to report you for academic dishonesty it could throw whatever scholarships you have remaining into question or at least make it so the professors study your work with a more critical eye from here on out.” 

Rage flooded my senses, pooling into my eyes, giving me tunnel vision and yet I managed to pull myself back. I was smarter than him. 

“My main scholarship is from the Wayne foundation and as I have now met Thomas Wayne, I feel any claims you could raise against me would be met by deaf ears. However, considering Wayne Enterprises and its subsidiaries are the top pharmaceutical manufactures in the world I feel a few words in the right ear could end your career before it even starts.” 

My smile grew as I watched his face redden. I didn’t account for his meaty fist. It was the first time I'd been struck by anyone other than my father. I think it was shock that sent me reeling more than the physical blow. It rattled me to my core. I scrambled back away from him. I was inside the room before I even realized I'd started running. 

I groaned looking at the deep bruise forming in the bathroom mirror, it would linger for a week at least. I sighed, there'd be no hiding it from Victor. I pulled a cut of meat from the mini fridge. I figured Victor would understand. 

I was completely lost in my homework when he materialized. 

He didn't even announce himself before making a grab for my hand that was keeping the now lukewarm meat pressed to my eye. 

I flicked him away more out of habit than actual malice. The movement was enough to give him a clear view of my swollen eye. 

“Sorry, I commandeered your cold cuts.” 

With all the injuries I'd seen him stagger home with, his current included, I didn't expect him to react at all. 

“Who?” One word was enough to tell me I couldn't answer him. 

I shook my head, knowing words would betray me. 

“Tell me Ed.” 

I remained silent trying to think of a way to diffuse the situation. 

“Was it Simon?” 

I made the mistake of looking up. The second our eyes met he was gone out the door. 

“Victor. No. Victor!” 

It occurred to me that I had never seen Victor run before, and though I gave chase it swiftly became clear I had no chance of keeping up. I doubted Victor even knew where he was going. My only hope was to outguess him, get there first, and convince him to stop. Which I imagined would be easier than stopping a runaway train, but only just. 

Where was Simon? He was out of class. Definitely too early for him to be back at his room. Homework load was light which meant he would be out. I had only seen him once when I'd been out with Victor. A sunny spacious café and bar just off campus. I convinced Victor we should leave before Simon spotted us. Simon was a creature if disgusting habits. If he'd found a place that tolerated him, he'd see no reason to go anywhere else. 

I ran, straighter than a crow flies, cutting across lawns, dashing down corridors until I collided with the door to the bar. And there he was, almost in the exact same place I'd seen him last time, leering at a couple of girls. 

I sucked in air trying to steady my heartbeat as I began to make my way across the room. Victor wouldn't hit me. I was certain of that. I'd just have to make sure to keep myself between him and Simon until I could make him see sense. 

Two steps in my plan was derailed by Victor throwing an arm around Simon's shoulder and forcefully dragging him out a side door. It was so quick, even in a room full of people, no one batted an eye. Victor had chuckled. To anyone else it may have looked like a couple of guys horsing around, but knowing Victor it was enough to make my blood run cold. 

I backtracked out the front door and darted around to the side alley. It was surreally quiet. Just the sound of fist hitting flesh and Simon sputtering and gagging. 

"Victor stop it." I growled, as I came up to him. I wasn't foolish enough to try to pull him off Simon. 

Victor turned smiling at me left hand still firmly clamped on Simon's throat. "You caught up," he said approvingly, then gestured for me to have a go at Simon. 

"No." 

I took a step back and Victor frowned. His grip on Simon's neck tightened, causing the sobbing man's brutalized face to turn an even deeper shade of purple. 

"Victor let him go." I said slowly, hoping if I calmed down, he'd calm down. 

Victor's frown only deepened he let out a reluctant sigh then threw Simon onto the ground. Turning, he ground the heel of his shoe down onto Simon's right hand. 

I swear I could hear the bones crunch over Simon's screaming. Victor pulled him back to his feet. I didn't hear what he said to the man, but the way Simon's eyes bulged and his mouth fell agape was telling enough. When Victor released him, Simon staggered away clutching his broken hand to his chest. 

Victor turned back around slowly, doing his best to look cowed, and failing miserably at it. 

"You're mad at me." He said, checking my glare before looking back down again. 

I ran a flustered hand down my face then readjusted my glasses. "Yes. No." I let out an exacerbated sigh. 

"You just broke Simon's hand. He's going to report you. You're going to get kicked out of school or worse." The words broke from my lips in a torrent. I was shaking. "Why would you do this Victor? In what world is retribution against a black eye worth losing my best friend?" 

Victor looked back up at me. "He won't tell anyone, Ed." 

"Of course he will!" I snapped. "He's a manipulative sick little worm who derives pleasure from causing me pain. He'll try to get us both expelled." 

Victor shook his head. "No Ed." He chuckled mirthlessly. "He won't tell anyone. He's number 56 since I got here." 

"Come again?" I asked, truly confused. 

Victor's smile slowly crept up his face. "He's the 56th guy I've done that too and none of 'em have ever talked." 

I just stood there stunned. Of course, I'd known Victor got into fights often. I'd seen the wounds, but I'd never realized he was that prolific. 

"You keep track." 

Victor nodded, throwing his arm over my shoulder as he led me out of the alleyway. 

"If it's cool with you I'm gonna grab a beer here before we head back to the room." 

I could feel the warm tackiness of blood seeping through the arm of my friend's shirt. Simon must have bitten him during his abduction. 

I sighed. "Okay. I think I'll grab one too." 

Victor knocked his head lightly against the side of mine then led me back into the bar. 

It was my first time drinking and my first time drunk, though Victor didn't let me go too far. Still I slept through my alarm the next day. Thankfully it was a Saturday. 

I demanded Victor stay with me the whole weekend. He didn't complain. I drank Saturday night as well, and forbid him from going out anymore without me. 

On Monday Simon was absent from all of our shared classes. He didn't return Tuesday and by Friday I knew, he was gone for good. I was neither pleased nor displeased by his disappearance. 

I was far too worried about Victor to care.

* * *

“Ed!” 

I awoke with a start. 

Victor's forehead was bleeding. 

“What happened?” I asked, swiftly retrieving one of our towels to press on the gash. 

I watched his eyebrows shift from anger to confusion. “You…” 

“Me?” 

“You threw your alarm clock at my head.” He gingerly bent and scooped up the offending device from the side of his bed. From the way his hand flexed I could tell he wanted to throw it, but handed it back to me instead. “You must have been sleep walking. Your eyes were open.” 

I had hit Victor? I sat down stunned, dropping the alarm clock back onto the floor. 

Victor picked it up again and set it back on the table. “I'm alright Ed.” 

“I've never—” My voice quavered so I stopped. 

“I know. I know. It's alright you were asleep. It wasn't you.” He reached out to me, but I retreated. 

“It was the alcohol,” I stammered, rising back up again to pace. “My father always got worse when he was drinking.” I said, more to myself than to him. 

“You haven't had anything since Saturday, Ed, and it’s not like this is the first time you've thrown that thing.” Victor stated calmly. “It's probably just stress from school or something.” 

I nodded slowly, agreeing with him because it wouldn't help right now to tell him the thing that had me most stressed out was his treatment of Simon, number 56… 

“Let's go somewhere.” Victor said, forcefully dragging the conversation in a new direction. “Let's get breakfast.” 

“Not Denny's.” I grabbed the first aid kit. 

“Have you no heart!” Victor joked, playing as though I'd struck him another terrible blow. 

Three butterfly Band-Aids later we were at Denny's. 

“Y'know Ed, part of the reason I keep picking this place is ‘cause you consistently make that face. You look like a wet cat, it's hilarious.” 

“I'm glad you're enjoying yourself.” I said, plastering on a false grin. 

“Don't be like that." He sighed. "Enjoy the crappy diner food and the fantastically slow service Thelma and Ulysses provide, and tell me what's really eating you.” 

“These aren't really eggs.” I noted, prodding the yellow goop on my plate with my fork. 

Victor swung his head back to look up at the ceiling. 

I paused in dissecting my breakfast. “What?” 

“I know you're still mad at me and how am I s'posed to fix it if you won't tell me?” 

“I'm not mad.” I stated, utterly confused. 

Victor levelled his head to raise an eyebrow at me. “You threw your clock at my head, Eddie. Even if you were asleep, I'd say that's a pretty powerful message from your subconscious that you and I have some unresolved issues.” 

I frowned at him for a half a minute before relenting. 

“Fifty-six people, Victor? Fifty-six! Honestly how many of them were because of me?” 

His brow knit in the way I'd come to associate with him calculating a complex equation. 

“Sixteen, with Simon.” 

I hadn't expected him to answer. It left me shaken. 

“They all deserved it.” 

“I find it hard to believe you found fifty-five other people who deserved that.” 

Victor pointed his index finger at the ceiling. “The first one had his hand up girls skirt after I heard her say no.” His middle finger followed the first. “The second was stealing from drunks at a bar.” His ring finger popped up. “The third— 

“Alright, I get it, you don't lie.” We both fell silent for a moment after my interruption. I recovered first, the need to explain myself driving me forward. “Even if you're beating on bad people, that's called vigilantism and it is still very illegal.” 

“Do you care?” He asked. 

“I care if you get arrested or worse. I honestly can't believe you haven't been shot yet.” 

His brow knit. “I was. You stitched it.” He indicated a spot on the side of his calf, that had been the site of one of his more gruesome wounds. 

I frowned at him biting my tongue. “Victor, I get it. I understand you're angry, but you can't keep doing this. We have to find something else. You asked me to help you with your company. If you keep going the board will find out and use it against you. You could lose everything because of this.” 

Victor looked at a loss. “I need it Ed.” 

“We’ll find something else. You trust me?” 

He nodded.


	8. Date Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor tries to do something nice for Ed. It backfires horribly of course.

We stopped going out for a while after that. At first, I was worried, but it seemed Victor had inherited more of his mother's resolve than I'd previously realized. We focused on schoolwork and studied way more than either of us needed to. He turned down party invites. I let him sit on my desk. Life was good. Stable. 

“Look who I found Ed!” 

I stopped dead. 

He was sitting at our usual table, where we met up between classes. Everything was the same. Except. He was smiling. That same old smile that he used to smile, with a wicked curl at his cheek and a hint of mischief in his eye. 

I'd thought I'd lost that smile. 

“Eddie!” Carolyn laughed gesturing for me to take a seat next to her. “I haven't seen you in forever.” 

“Sorry,” I said pulling up a chair. “I've been a bit of a shut in recently.” 

“Honestly me too, I took a five-week stats course, total nightmare. We should go out though, I mean if you guys aren't too busy.” 

“Don't let Ed fool ya, he's the smartest guy in Gotham, he can stand to miss a couple nights of study.” Victor answered for me. 

“Just don't keep him out past ten, right?” 

They both laughed and I realized it was the first time I'd heard Victor's since his return. 

I couldn't help but smile. They continued their rapid-fire talk while I listened passively in the background, indulging in the long drawn out moments of silence that occurred whenever they paused to await my input. 

Plans were made for the end of the week and before I even fully came to comprehend what was happening it was the night of, and Victor was straightening my tie while whistling a horribly off-key rendition of what was possibly meant to be _Brandy_. 

He ran his thumbnail across my scalp shifting my bangs. 

“Knock ‘em dead Ed.” He chuckled. 

I couldn't wipe the smile from my lips. Still I couldn't fully shake my trepidation either. 

“What are you going to do while I'm gone?” 

Victor rolled his eyes at me. Then bounded over to his bed proudly retrieving one of his ratty paperback novels. “Figure I'll take the _Night Watch_ ,” he said waggling his brow. 

I shook my head. “I'll never understand why you read that fantasy drivel.” 

He stuck his tongue out at me sprawling out on his bed. “You wouldn't call it drivel if you'd just read one.” 

It was a tired old argument we both knew the steps to. He loved those damn books, claimed he learned more from them than school. Actually, I can almost believe it now—the real point at the time was, he set to reading one just so I could feel safe leaving him alone for the evening. If he was reading some fool’s errand about assassins and guards working together to overthrow some blatant caricature of the ruling class, at least he wouldn't be tempted to start back in on his own foolish errands.

* * *

Dinner was nice. The truth was I hadn't put much thought to Carolyn, since I'd been dealing with Zsasz and as she pointed out, not unkindly, I hadn't put much thought to myself either. Victor was just this great all-consuming thing, at the heart of it, he was already on some grand adventure and I was just a chapter in his book. Carolyn helped me realize that, I never got to thank her for it. 

We should have called a cab. Walking with Victor had made me lax. We weren't even in a bad part of town when the two men confronted us. 

I stepped in front of Carolyn. I knew I had to protect her. I think I told her to run. 

It was pathetic. I didn't even curl my hands into fists, I just stood there, like an idiot until one of them threw me against the wall. 

Carolyn screamed when they grabbed me and then she attacked them. She pretended to retrieve her wallet and then maced them. I just stayed there against the wall flabbergasted, until she dragged me away. When we stopped several blocks away, she was the one checking to see if I was injured. 

I cried. 

I wasn't hurt. I wasn't even scared. I cried because I couldn't protect her. Even with both our lives on the line, I couldn't fight back.

* * *

Carolyn offered to walk me home. I adamantly refused. I brought her back to her apartment and then set off on my own. I didn't want to go back to the room. I didn't want Victor to see me in my current state. The coward I truly was, even though I knew, he already knew. 

I ended up roaming the streets alone. It was well past ten when I started to wonder why Victor enjoyed this activity so much, I didn't mind walking with Victor, but on my own my thoughts weighed me down. In some vain attempt to break free of the thoughts of inadequacies when compared to Victor, I went to the one place I knew he would never go, the water. It had gotten to the point where he even avoided the bridges. 

I looked out at the dark lapping waves and shuddered under the chill breeze. I let the cold seep in. I let the darkness take me. Cold and numb I watched the sun rise over the waves and then I turned toward home. 

Victor greeted me the second I opened the door. I should have realized then that he wasn't sleeping most nights. 

“You stayed out past ten,” he teased. 

“It wasn't like that.” I said too tired to deal with his antics. 

He cocked his right ear up, but I waved him off in favor of swapping my suit out for sleepwear. I then promptly passed out on top of my bed.

* * *

When I awoke, he was fully dressed and perched on the edge off his bed starring. 

“You look like a vulture.” I muttered checking my glasses. I'd fallen asleep with them on. 

“Are you alright, Ed?” he asked, tilting his head again. 

I sighed. If I didn't talk, he'd probably hunt down Carolyn for answers. 

“We got mugged.” 

Victor went still. It reminded me of when a cat spots prey. 

“You don't have to worry, Carolyn saved us.” 

“You're angry Ed.” 

I frowned at him. “No, I'm not.” I asserted because I was indeed annoyed by his easy assessment. 

Victor's brow knit, no doubt he was unsure of how to react to such a blatant lie. 

I regained my senses before he did. 

“I'm going to go change.” I announced before locking myself in the bathroom. 

The worst part was knowing he'd be sitting out there waiting, watching me expectantly. I seriously considered yelling at him to leave through the bathroom door, but I feared where he'd go. What he'd do… I decided to take a shower before forcing myself to face him again. 

When I came back out, he was gone. 

I panicked. 

Bolting out into the hall I spotted him leisurely making his way back to the room with a mini box of cereal. 

“What?” He asked. 

He must have caught the remnants of anxiety still draining from my face. 

I shook my head. “For a second I thought you'd gone off to hunt down those muggers.” 

He sighed heavily and walked back in the room. 

“I'm sorry.” I said following him back in. 

“For what?” 

“I couldn't protect her. I stayed up all night thinking about how pathetic I am and then I came back here and took it out on you, so yes, I am mad at myself. I need to learn how to fight.” 

Victor frowned. “You shouldn't have to— 

“I don't want you to fight for me, Victor.” 

He dropped his eyes to the floor and his voice dropped to just a hair above a whisper. “That's not what I was gonna say.” 

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “I'm sorry.” 

“It's Gotham, Ed. It's all fucked up. That's why there's so many titans of industry here, because they get away with so much shit. Even—" He broke himself off, eyes flaring slightly before dropping back into that neutral facade of his. "I can walk down any street in this whole fucking city and someone is hurting someone else." He fixed me with his dark stare, not cold, but considerate. "So, I hurt them." He shrugged. “If you want to learn how to fight, I'll teach you, but you really shouldn't have to fight, Ed. The rest of the world isn't like this.” 

We went out for drinks that night. Victor professed that when he took full control of Z Industrial, he'd move its headquarters out of Gotham. He decided after I graduated, we'd have to go location scouting. He'd have to build me a lab after all. 

I think we were both drunk by the end, he was just more used to it than I was. He dragged me into some back alley and told me to hit him. 

He showed me different ways of curling my hand into a fist and explained the effects each one would have on me and my opponent. Even then he knew where to hit and hold to seize full control, to hurt someone without breaking them, or to destroy them. 

I can't remember the specifics, the alcohol robbed me of most of it, but I remember thinking that he knew too much, far too much. I remember how that dark knowing rooted itself deep within the back of my mind. I suppose I'd always known something was wrong with Victor, it was just back then it felt like admitting it would be kindred to admitting something was wrong with me. 

I couldn't hit him. I couldn't bring myself to even try. 

I ended up sobbing into his shoulder. He promised me, we'd leave Gotham.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chap, just to set up the endgame for this fic.
> 
> Bonus points if you know who Zsasz's fave author is. 
> 
> I think it fits well because Zsasz would fit right in to the Assassin's Guild and the primary city is basically fantasy Gotham, with Jim the Captain of the Guards.
> 
> Also still debating posting the next bit of the series. It's all Carmine Falcone's POV dunno if anyone would be interested. It's a lot shorter, I've got one with him and Oswald pretty much done after that, but then I can't figure out the fourth bleh. The fifth is done, but I'm not sure about the ending. I'm fishing for feedback as always.


	9. Number 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please read the notes at the end I need help!

It was hard seeing Carolyn again after that. She didn't treat me any differently, but I couldn't help feeling like I'd failed her. Suffice to say we never went out again, despite Victor’s belief that she was waiting for me to ask her and his offering to set things up for me. 

I couldn't. 

Still none of this seemed to deter her finding both Victor and I and then accepting Victor's offers to ‘hang out’. It seemed he was determined to play matchmaker no matter how many times I told him I was no longer interested. 

“What do you think Ed?” 

I blinked. “Sorry I was thinking about catalysts.” 

“Just say it's a bad idea.” Victor prompted next to me. 

“It's a bad idea.” I parroted. “No, seriously what was the idea again?” 

“I want to find Cortney Nguyen. You know investigate her disappearance.” 

“Who?” 

“Freshman, went missing last week.” Victor supplemented. “It's on all the tag boards.” 

I turned to the nearest one to find a black and white photo of a girl grinning back at me. “Oh.” 

“What was it you said about not living in books.” Victor teased. 

“Studying for your chosen career path is different than binge reading fantasy novels.” 

“Speaking of career paths…” 

“Sorry, Carolyn, continue.” 

“Thanks Ed. While it would be awesome to find her, I'm not going to oversell myself, there's no way I'm better than the GCPD, but I figure I can write about my search, document sources, who knows maybe I'll even come up with something I can submit to the Gazette.” 

“That sounds like a good plan.” I admitted before turning back to Victor. “Why do you think it's a bad idea.” 

Victor straightened. “Because she's planning on going slumming by herself.” 

My words caught in my throat. It was a bad idea. 

“You guys are overreacting.” Carolyn laughed. “Victor you told me you used to wander all over Gotham at night and nothing bad ever happened to you.” 

I froze. Victor rose from his seat, planted his dress shoe on the table, and rolled up his pant leg revealing a thick scar on his calf. 

“I got shot.” 

Carolyn's eyes shot wide as she drew closer to examine the wound. “Did you report it?” 

“No. The GCPD doesn't care I got shot, they don't care Cortney's missing, just like they're not gonna care if you disappear too. It's a bad idea.” 

“I'm with Victor on this.” I caved. 

Carolyn shook her head. “That’s what I'm supposed to do. Make people care.”

* * *

She went. 

Sometimes Victor went with her. Sometimes she didn't wait for him. I hated both alternatives. When Victor went, I spent the whole time dreading the thought of Carolyn calling the cops after Victor took things too far. When Carolyn told me about times, she went out alone though she was always just barely squeezing out of some tight situation. 

I never went. I figured I'd be utterly useless and would only serve as a target in a bad situation. I stayed home and worked on schoolwork. 

Victor never hurt anyone. It seemed his presence was enough to deter most people. 

One day Carolyn didn't come back. 

I probably wouldn't have noticed she was missing the first day, but Victor had been waiting for her. He didn't take it well.

* * *

It was my first time in a police station. Victor went straight up to the desk jockey at the head of the bull ring and demanded to speak with their captain. 

The officer didn't even want to give us the time of day. Then he made the mistake of telling Victor he had to wait 48 hours before he could even file a missing person’s case. 

“Assaulting an officer will only land you in a holding cell and won't help Carolyn.” 

I grabbed him by the shirt collar and dragged him outside. He let me do it. 

Once we were out though I could tell he was swiftly losing whatever hold he'd been maintaining over his temper. He kept backing away from me flexing his fists. 

“I'll go back in and try to reason with them.” I said trying to assuage his anger. 

He shook his head, pacing. “The GCPD won't do shit, because they're a bunch of CORRUPT WORTHLESS PIGS!” He shouted the last part at a group officers in full uniform. 

I hauled him away while they were monetarily stunned by the sheer volume of his outburst. 

He shook me off roughly, but I was relieved that he kept going in the direction I'd set rather than going back and making an attempt to try and take on the entire GCPD with nothing but his fists. 

“We'll just have to find her ourselves.” He croaked after a few minutes of us walking in silence. 

I didn't dare speak against him. It was the first time I ever thought he might lash out against me. His anger was beyond words. I could almost see it rolling off of him in waves. Under it all I couldn't help, but feel he blamed me. He'd done so much to watch after her, to try to protect her while I'd sequestered myself off in the room too afraid to face the inevitably before us. 

When we arrived back at the room he didn't enter. It terrified me. 

“Victor come in. We'll look in the morning.” 

He stared at me with those deep dark eyes. 

“Just be here when I come back, okay.” 

“No!” I bolted back out into the hallway blocking his way. 

“Ed, you're being ridiculous.” He said calmly but firmly pushing me aside. 

“Carolyn isn't stupid. She knows how to take care of herself. If something happened to her it could just as easily happen to you.” Tears ran hot and heavy down my face. 

He looked back, but didn't return. “Just stay here, Ed.”

* * *

I stayed. 

I didn't sleep. 

The next day I was able to officially fill out a missing person’s report for Carolyn. Despite my best efforts he refused to let me file one for Victor, since he'd seen him yesterday. 

I didn't go to class. 

I waited. I even sat on top of my desk for a while. 

He didn't return. 

At some point I fell asleep. 

The next morning, I rose early. I had to file a police report for Victor. 

The door was blocked. 

I shoved harder and managed to clear enough space to stick my head out. 

“Oh my.” 

Victor unconscious on the floor. 

A couple of our neighboring students laughed as they walked by, commenting on Victor's ‘serious bender’. I wanted to throttle them both. 

I dragged him into the room. He hissed when I tugged on his arm. I could feel the dampness through his shirtsleeve my hand came away red. 

Pulling off his shirt revealed a ragged deep cut on his right arm, but that wasn't the worst of it. 

He'd been shot. 

Dark ichor was flowing from the wound in his side. 

“You have to go to the hospital.” I grabbed the phone off its receiver. 

“No.” Victor said firm and pain filled. 

It was enough to cause me to pause, but I swiftly regained my senses. 

“You should already be there.” 

I hit ‘9', and Victor smacked the disconnect button. 

“I think I killed someone.” 

For a moment I just stared. When I got up to leave, he didn't stop me.

* * *

I lied to the lab aids, said some professor sent me to get the odd set of accoutrements I required. Looking back, I don't even know if they believed me, or if they simplify were too put off by the state I was in to stop me. 

Victor was lying on his bed when I came back in. 

“I only grabbed essentials no pain killers.” I handed him one of his belts in way of apology. 

He nodded his thanks before gripping the strip of Italian leather between his teeth. 

I turned on my pilfered head lamp, then plunged my freshly sterilized forceps into the hole in Victor's side. 

It took me three tries to get the slug out. His wound was bleeding all the worse for it. I sterilized the wound as best I could, packed it, bandaged it and prayed. 

I didn't know what else to do, so I moved to stitch the gash in his arm. 

“Leave it.” Victor ordered. 

I frowned looking down at him. 

He was well and truly beaten. There were other cuts, and what wasn't bleeding was bruised. 

He never told me what happened. 

I never asked about Carolyn. Obviously, she hadn't come back with him even if he did find her. 

I thought it was over. 

He stayed in bed for three days. I didn't go to class. I tended his wound. Miraculously it was getting better. 

Day four he tried to leave. 

I immediately blocked his path. “What do you think you're doing?” 

“The people who took Carolyn are still out there.” 

“Yes, and they shot you.” 

I prodded his side. He winced. 

“Even I could take you down right now, Victor.” 

He slumped back down onto his bed. “I might not be able to find them again if I wait.” 

“Good.” 

He looked up at me confused. Maybe even angry. 

I didn't blame him. I hated myself for saying it, but I could only see one way forward. 

I sat down on my bed across from him. 

“You need to let this go, Victor. You've been unbelievably lucky so far, if you continue down this path you will lose Z Industrial and— 

“I don't care about that.” Victor's words were hard and biting. 

I paused watching him. 

Brow set, determined. Victor Zsasz didn't lie. 

“But your parents... 

“Are dead. No one's going to care if I walk away. No one's going to care if I— 

“I care!” I reached out and grabbed his shoulder. “Victor— 

He jolted backward dislodging my hand. “No Ed, you don't understand. I liked it.” 

I was confused. He liked getting shot… My eyes widened as I realized his true meaning. 

His face was a mask of neutrality. 

“We're not alike.” He sighed then dropped his tone. “You're going to finish school and get a job with Thomas and do a million amazing things. I'm not sure what's gonna happen with me, but you can't be involved anymore.” 

He stood up and I followed suit. 

“You're not thinking straight. Let me help you!” I grabbed his shoulder again desperately trying to keep him from the door. “We can still leave Gotham.” 

“That's not going to fix me, Ed.” 

He twisted me around and tossed me back onto my bed. 

“Do good work, Ed.” He shut the door silently behind him. 

That was the last I saw of him.

* * *

I looked. For months after I spent my free time stalking the pathways we had once walked together. The next semester I took my first forensic science course. After graduation I took my job at the GCPD. I had this misguided dream that I would enlighten them make them better. Obviously, I was wrong. 

His body came in a couple weeks after I started there. The M.E. already hated me, so I was confused when he called me in. I identified my father's remains, but I didn't claim them. 

I cried. 

They tried to send me home, offered me condolences. They didn't understand my tears weren't for the dead bastard. I had lost my only friend.

* * *

“He never contacted me beyond that. I don't know if he'll want to see me. I don't know how much he's changed.” 

I watch Oswald in his seat across from me. It's easy to see why he and Victor get along. Oswald’s pale green eyes are just as sharp and assessing as Victor's. 

“Who knew?” My friend chuckles quietly to himself before addressing me. “You won't have to worry, Ed. Victor's the portrait of professional, if I tell him to leave you alone, he will.” 

I smile, because I know that's what Oswald wants, but honestly, I’m not sure what I want. A part of me desperately wants to see him, but there's this overpowering dread that the man I used to know will be completely eradicated, and Oswald has said nothing to counter that belief. 

The car stops and Oswald's brutish one-handed assistant opens the door. I step out and take in the ivy-covered walls of Vandahl Estate. It looks like the sort of place that would be the host of a murder mystery and with Oswald around that seems only too likely. 

Inside it's bustling with an odd mixture of brightly dressed campaign workers intermingling with dark suited thugs. A spick and span man, immediately throws himself in front of Oswald. 

“You see what I'm dealing with.” Oswald rolls his eyes dramatically. 

I shake my head sympathetically. “Just tell me where you want me.” 

“I've got your office set up through there.” Oswald points. “I promise I'll be right in.” 

I smile, not believing a word of it. There are already several others queuing up for the mayoral candidate’s attention. It doesn't matter, right now I just want to be away from the crowd. The noise and activity level, is too close to Arkham for comfort. 

I pull open the door to the room Oswald indicated and swiftly close it behind me. When I look up, I see him sitting on top of my desk. 

“Hey Ed, glad to see you finally caught up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, for those of you who made it to the end,
> 
> This is meant to be part 1 of a 5 fic series. 
> 
> I have the next two parts fully written, though I'll probably spend a while editing them still. They are both shorter than this fic and they both take place prior to Oswald freeing Ed from Arkham.
> 
> I also have a the 5th fic written for the end of the series. It might actually be longer than this fic if I remember correctly. It's set up to take place during Oswald's Freak Family arc.
> 
> Here's my problem. I've tried multiple times to write the 4th fic and I always get stuck in parts. I want it to capitalize on Ed and Oswald's falling out. I want it set somewhere in the span of time from the whole Isabella mess to after Ed shoots Oswald. I also want to play with the Court of Owls some, but that's really all I've got.
> 
> So I'm desperate for ideas, inspiration, comments on what part you'd like to see Victor play in the fall out between Ed and Oswald. 
> 
> SO PLEASE! Comment to let me know.
> 
> Again, I will be posting two more fics before it's time for the 4th, and the 3rd one is Oswald heavy, so I'll be begging for input on those as well and there will be time to send me any ideas between now and then. Commenting on anon is totally fine too! I just feel like I can't post the final part until I get the 4th done. :'(
> 
> Either way thanks for taking time to enjoy this story with me! I'll see you again soon! So, follow the series for updates!

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first thing I'm posting, so I figure I'll give y'all a brief introduction to how I work.
> 
> This story and any other works I post on here are already 100% complete. According to my file dates I started writing this back in July 2017 and finished it August 2017, so don't expect it to follow season 4 cannon or anything like that. That being said I WILL NOT POST INCOMPLETE WORKS.
> 
> You might ask what took you so long. Well, I originally intended to part of a 5 part Zsasz-centric series. I've completed 4 parts and decided to start posting it before the show is completely over and I'm hoping you guys can maybe help me figure out how to complete the missing part.
> 
> I'm also interested in hearing suggestions on this piece or any of the other complete parts. I'm not sure if I'll write additional scenes, but I'm open to suggestion. So, posting schedule, will sort of depend on comments, if I decide to add a scene, otherwise it'll be loose I'm thinking weekly, maybe bi-weekly. I like to do one final read through before I post.
> 
> As a final heads up this is going to be more character and plot analysis, not smut. So if you're looking for that I'm totally fine with someone else writing "missing" scenes, using these works as a springboard, but I'm not planning on writing it myself. I'll totally post links if someone wants to though. 
> 
> Any questions hit me up in comments. Also up for any critiques including my grammar, riddles and tags since I'm totally new to this site.


End file.
